levirate

English - Turkish

Definition of levirate in English Turkish dictionary

İbranilerde ölmüş adamın karısı ile ölünün kardeşinin veya en yakın akrabasının evlenme mecburi yeti

bu âdete ait

English - English

Definition of levirate in English English dictionary

Having to do with one's husband's brother

The institution of levirate marriage

The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.

A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir

The marriage of a woman to her husbands brother

the biblical institution whereby a man must marry the widow of his childless brother in order to maintain the brother's line

Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with, a law of the ancient Israelites and other tribes and races, according to which a woman, whose husband died without issue, was married to the husband's brother

{i} custom which required that a man marry his brother's widow if the deceased died childless (Biblical)

Having to do with ones husbands brother

Related Terms

levirate marriage

A marriage in which a widow marries her late husband's brother in order to maintain the family community

levirate marriages

plural form of levirate marriage

levirate and sororate

Customs or laws regulating marriage following the death of a spouse, or in some cases during the lifetime of the spouse. The levirate decrees a dead man's brother to be the widow's preferred marriage partner. In ancient Hebrew society, this practice served to perpetuate the line of a man who died childless. Often, the brother who marries his sister-in-law is a proxy for the deceased and no new marriage is contracted, since all progeny are acknowledged as the seed of the dead man. The sororate decrees the marriage of a man to his deceased wife's sister or, under so-called sororal polygyny, to the wife's younger sisters as they come of age. The latter was practiced by some American Indian tribes in the 19th century and continues among the Australian Aborigines

Hyphenation

le·vi·rate

Etymology

() From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate